SALEM — The League of American Bicyclists has awarded Salem with its first bronze-level Bicycle Friendly Community (BFC) award for its efforts in making the city a better place for people to bike.
The bronze BFC award acknowledges Salem’s commitment to improving conditions for people who bike through investments in bike-education programs, regular bike events that promote and encourage people to choose biking, pro-bike policies, and bike infrastructure.
The city established its Bicycling Advisory Committee in 2006 and completed bike master plans in 2010 and 2018 to help with the development of infrastructure, programs, and policies to support bicycling in the community.
Mayor Kimberley Driscoll said she is proud that Salem is making bicycling a safe, convenient, and enjoyable travel option that helps reduce vehicular traffic and congestion, strengthens public health, and improves the environment by reducing emissions and lessening local contribution to the climate crisis.
“This designation is a recognition of our city’s work to become a ‘car-choice’ community, where driving is just one option for residents, employees, students, and visitors to get to their destination,” Driscoll said.
Some recent projects that helped contribute to bike infrastructure include off-street paths at the Harbor Connector Path between Collins Cove and Derby Street, the Mayor Anthony Salvo Multi-Use Path between downtown and South Salem, and the new Bridge Street path connecting the Mayor Jean Levesque Community Life Center to downtown via the Leslie’s Retreat Park path.
These paths are open to cyclists, pedestrians, joggers, skaters, and people using wheelchairs and mobility scooters.
The city also has a bike-share program, Salem Spins, that was launched in 2011 and contracted in 2017 with bike-share operator Zagster.
This past summer, the city also joined Bluebikes — Metro Boston’s regional bike-share program — and has plans to add more Bluebikes stations in the community over the next few months.
“I want to thank the Bicycling Advisory Committee, the city’s Traffic and Parking and Planning departments staff, and former transportation intern Noah Gordon for all of their work to prepare the application for this award, and their ongoing efforts to make Salem more bike-friendly,” Driscoll said.
The expansion of biking infrastructure helps the city’s goals to reduce carbon emissions and increase climate resiliency, as transportation accounts for almost half of Salem’s energy use and bicycling is a zero-emission alternative.
The city is also working to keep bike paths intact, recently working with Salem Sound Coastwatch to build a living shoreline at Collins Cove to protect the Peter Tracy Path and surrounding homes from coastal storm surge and wave action.
More than 850 communities applied for recognition by the Bicycle Friendly Community program, and while the award process considers visible elements like bike infrastructure, other elements include efforts around adult and youth bike education, encouragement through events like Bike to Work Day, evaluation mechanisms, and enforcement all through the lens of equity.
Salem is one of 497 communities across the country, and 14 others in Massachusetts, in the movement for safer streets and better bicycling for everyone.
To learn more about the BFC program, visit bikeleague.org/community.
